Description

Several shots of maps showing different parts of the world. A beautiful young woman sits down in a living room and plays a game of patience (cards) on a tabletop covered with a map.

In the British Museum, London, we see several shots of ancient maps, including a stone fragment of the oldest map in the world from Egypt.

Two actors in costume from the Middle Ages (?) are seen burning a map, illustrating the time in history when the scientific map was frowned on by the church as rank heresy. This is followed by brief historical scenes, showing Christopher Columbus standing an egg on end by cracking it and Queen Isabella of Spain giving Columbus her jewellery and a scroll as the representative of Spain. Commentator jokes "...and he discovered America for this!" as we see shots of the neon lights of Broadway (? New York, United States of America) superimposed over C/U of a woman singing into a microphone. The soundtrack is a mix of 'gangster' dialogue and the woman singing.

Diagrams show the route the Columbus took from Spain to the West Indies. M/S of a seaplane (the Caledonia) taking off from the water. On board a plane a surveyor looks at a map; aerial view of the ground through the bottom of the plane as commentator talks of land being photographed from aeroplanes for map making.

In a studio we see men putting photographic prints together to assist in the making of detailed maps.